Posts by joey jojo

30

Opinions on the Divine name in the New Testament? + an interesting question

by Blotty in

i am genuinely curious and mainly posting this for research purposes, i do not have enough knowledge on either of these subjects to debate them in any useful manner.. (this information is as far as i am aware and may be incorrect in places)as most know the nwt is known for placing a form of the divine name in the nt (new testament) - while i agree the evidence is significantly weak for it too appear in the nt, a few things must be considered - (from my limited research)rev references the name twice (3:12, 14:1)early copies of the lxx contain the divine name (likely the versions that the nt writers copied?

stafford has a couple of videos on this subject)it was emphasized over and over the name [divine name, which ever form you prefer] would be "known" (other words used aswell) forever - if this is true, why then go against your own message in some cases and replace it with a surrogate?some also claim the nwt is dishonest for not translating some occurrences of "lord" as the divine name - common ones i notice are: phil 2:10-11, 1pe 3:14-15, heb 1:10yet these all use "lord" as a title not a proper noun, seems to be staunch trinitarians who make this claim most oftenscholar qualifications:why does a scholars qualification's matter?

sounds dumb i know.

joey jojo

I'm no bible scholar either but here are some things that I have found interesting over the years.

In an effort to support the validity of the bible, the WT claims that nothing in the bible has been changed, altered or omitted in any significant way over the centuries of translating. However, they take it upon themselves to insert Gods name in the new testament over 250 times, completely ignoring the fact it has never been found in any fragment or copy.

The oldest copies of the NT in existence are written 100 years after Jesus died. They are not complete books, only scraps of parts of scriptures.

The first complete books of the NT are dated to the 3rd century, not the complete bible- only some books.

The first complete NT bible, the codex sinaiticus doesnt appear until the 4th century.

None of the gospels were eyewitness accounts and the originals werent written until decades after the death of Jesus.

Luke and Paul never met Jesus, yet between them are responsible for writing about half of the books of the NT.

God did not dictate the canon of the bible- it was decided upon by men.

Many books that we have in the NT werent universally accepted as belonging in the bible and some still arent by certain branches of christian faiths.

The version of the bible used by JW's is the protestant bible which didnt exist before 1534 CE, which separated the apocrypha. If JW's believe God inspired the books of the bible and it was already complete in the 1st century, then why accept a revised version over 1000 years later which removes some books?

31

Hobbies

by peacefulpete in

jw
friends

i think it's been a while since this was asked.

tell us your hobbies, interests, pastimes, whatever you find enjoyable as a diversion from work and school.

i am lucky enough to live in a small cabin on a lake, i enjoy rowing my old boat and fishing, i play with car projects, and we travel as much as we can.

joey jojo

For those of you into amateur radio, have any of you dabbled with SDR -software defined radio?

6

Australia 2021 Census: why did JW grow?

by shepherdless in

hi all, some may remember about 5 years ago, i did a few articles on what the australian census of 2016 said about jw and some other religions.

i have been meaning to add a bit on the 2021 census; the more detailed results have only been available in the last month or so.. an obvious question is why and how did jw numbers increase between 2016 and 2021. it is reasonable to assume the pandemic had a role.

the data doesn't fully answer that question, but it does show that a lot of over 35 y.o.

joey jojo

No doubt the pandemic scared a few back.

The chart indicates that there are far fewer babies being born into the org in 2021 than 2006, that's interesting.

59

Why isn't this forum growing like reddit exjw??

by nowwhat? in

admittedly it 90% crap over there but still they are up to 80k in subscribers.

over here it's the same half dozen or so that posts something, including myself.

why is that?.

joey jojo

Wow- 3 mins and I already have a down-vote, Im impressed (but not surprised).

The mega thread is sacrosanct after all.

59

Why isn't this forum growing like reddit exjw??

by nowwhat? in

admittedly it 90% crap over there but still they are up to 80k in subscribers.

over here it's the same half dozen or so that posts something, including myself.

why is that?.

joey jojo

"after thousands and thousands comments on a Lloyd Evans thread, people think this is a hate Evans fan club 😊. They have hard time taking page seriously"

Of the people posting on the mega thread, 1% are people that claim to be genuinely butt-hurt by Lloyd Evans in some way and the other 99% seem to be sh1t-posting for lulz.

36

“Hanging the earth upon nothing”

by FFGhost in

for those of you not up to speed on the latest jw trends, one of the key scriptures the jws are using in field serve-us lately is job 26:7, wherein the writer describes the earth as “hanging upon nothing”.. this text is used to indicate the bible’s “reliability”.

the reasoning goes something like this:.

“see, centuries ago, people thought the world was flat, or was resting on elephants or turtles, or some such nonsense.

joey jojo

TonusOH

"If they were being guided by a being who literally knew everything, it would have been useful for the book to offer some of this knowledge clearly and directly. Imagine telling us that the Earth was a sphere that rotated around the sun, part of a galaxy of planets that were in orbits around a star. No interpretation required, just information that would make it clear that these men had access to a source of knowledge that transcended us."

Agree.

Also, a heads up on mosquito related deaths and how to avoid them would have been nice too. What about the dangers of drinking contaminated water- does it say anywhere in the bible its best to boil water before consuming?

Mosquito bites and contaminated water have caused more suffering and death than all wars in history combined.

10

Apostate Hunter?

by Lost in the fog in

has anyone heard of this jw guy?.

apparently he writes a weekly (weakly?

) blog as well as having written this book where he claims he disses the claims of "apostates".. to know what apostates are saying he has to be engaging with them or tuning into websites like this one, contravening the gb's direction not to do so.

joey jojo

I think I saw the movie about this guy.

Oh wait, that was Abraham Lincoln, vampire hunter.

36

“Hanging the earth upon nothing”

by FFGhost in

for those of you not up to speed on the latest jw trends, one of the key scriptures the jws are using in field serve-us lately is job 26:7, wherein the writer describes the earth as “hanging upon nothing”.. this text is used to indicate the bible’s “reliability”.

the reasoning goes something like this:.

“see, centuries ago, people thought the world was flat, or was resting on elephants or turtles, or some such nonsense.

joey jojo

Genesis chapter 1 is full of scientific errors and its interesting to see how apologists deal with them.

Argument:God created vegetation before the Sun, so how did the plants survive for eons?

Apologists: God had already created light on day 1 and thats how.

Argument: We only have light becuse of the Sun- it gets pretty dark at night- light from the Sun isnt pervasive at night. The Sun wasnt created until after the vegetation.

Apologists: But it says God created the heavens on day 1.

Argument: The hebrew word for sky, 'hassamayim' also means 'air', the place where birds fly, it doesnt mean the place where the sun, moon and stars exist.

Gen 1:1 could be translated , 'in the beginning God created the sky and the earth', which gives a completely different connotation to the modern reader. From the point of view of the ancient hebrew audience, the place where the stars, moon and sun exist is the 'firmament' (raqia), which translates to something like a flat,beaten sheet of metal.

And we havent even got to the flood story yet.

173

Is the tide turning against covid vaccines?

by slimboyfat in

have you seen this video about the covid vaccines?

have you got any views on the information?

i find it worrying at least.

joey jojo

I dont disagree that there is a link between myocarditis symptoms and the covid vaccine, especially in young males, but catching covid can also cause myocarditis, which complicates the findings.

27

Jehovah's New Light

by Vanderhoven7 in

what new light from jehovah did you find hard to swallow?.

the conversations in the attached video are enlightening.

the graphic is hilarious.. https://youtu.be/byj3zrpbuvg.

joey jojo

The anointed will all be gone before Armageddon.